Nine victims of a mid-air collision between a coastguard aircraft and a US Marine Corps helicopter were feared dead today.
The investigation into the crash off California on Thursday night is focussing on how the crews failed to see each other in a heavily-used military training area.
Military aircraft and ships searched the ocean off Southern California for any sign of the victims yesterday, while investigators gathered recordings of air traffic controllers and pilot communications.
The search covered over 1,000 square kilometres of ocean but focused on a debris field 80 kilometres off the coast of San Diego, California.
The crash involved a coastguard C-130 plane with a seven-member crew and a Marine Corps AH-1W Super Cobra helicopter with two aboard as it flew in formation near the US Navy’s San Clemente Island, a site with training ranges for amphibious, air, surface and undersea warfare.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman described the crash as a tragedy. “The search is still on, but it’s likely taken the lives of nine individuals.”
The Sacramento-based C-130 crew was looking for a man on motorised skiff who was reported missing after leaving Avalon Harbour on Santa Catalina Island to reach a friend on a disabled yacht adrift off Catalina in high winds, authorities said.
The Marine Corps helicopter was flying from Camp Pendleton near San Diego to San Clemente Island.
AP